Fell by Feet
by BalletGirl537
Summary: It's Innocence lost. This is a desperate time, when desperate games are played for desperate stakes. Let the Doctor play the winning game; I will play the losing one.
1. Open Windows

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters. If you are offended by any Christian prayers, please do not read this story.**

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**Chapter One: Open Windows**

It was the best of times for Yugi; it was the worst of times. It was the end of the year, but finals were right around the corner. And not only finals, but an end-of-course exam for both his chemistry and algebra class. So the review packets and sheets and extra last-minute lessons were piled on top of the pubescent boy until his backpack was twice its original weight, making Yugi look like some type of Galapagos turtle or hunchback of Notre dame, with spiky hair. If there was one thing that brought the young boy's spirits up, it was the sun. The sun and the plants coming back to life. Turning from brown to green, filling in the empty spaces and giving the birds a home. The white flowers. The grass. The flowers glowed under the moonlight as the cars passed, signaling their approach with their bright headlights.

Yugi splashed the last bit of water on his face before drying it and stepping out of the bathroom. He was loosely clad in light blue pajamas, with yellow stars. Such pajamas made him look like he was five years old again. But they were given to him by his mum, whom he loved so much, but never saw. Alas, he always wore them as much as he could during the depressive bouts of her absence. They were fleece, and warm.

The bed creaked silently when the boy flopped down on it. The blankets gave a little and he sat under the rays of the moonlight sliding in from the skylight in the ceiling. Downing a glass of milk, Yugi was about to pull up the covers, but remembered something.

Oh, his prayers!

Yugi pulled himself out of his paused half-sitting-half-lying position and jumped off of his bed to kneel on the edge of it. He folded his hands.

_Now I lay me down to sleep,_  
_I pray the Lord my soul to keep._  
_If I should die before I wake,_  
_I pray the Lord my soul to take._

After finishing, Yugi smiled and hoisted himself back into the plush heaven that was his bead. He lay on his back a few moments, and closed his eyes. Just as he could feel his body sink into the cloud under him, he heard creaking. Yugi sat up.

It was quiet, but loud enough to bother him. It wasn't coming from across the room. And it wasn't coming from the closet. It actually sounded like it was right beside him. In his right ear.

He turned, only to see a wall. Termites maybe? Then, he looked over at the window just out of reach, but by his bed. Annoyed that he had to get out of bed again, Yugi stomped over to the window. Just as he suspected, the window was open just enough to create that confounded creaking sound. It was closed with a satisfying clack, locked, and covered with blue curtains that shut out the rest of the outside world; Yugi preferred sleeping in more quiet, solitary places. It was just his nature. Maybe he learned it from his mother and father, or maybe he was just weird? The bed once again creaked silently as the tired teen lay himself down to sleep again. Ah, how blissful the little cloud from heaven was to the weary boys back. But, despite the heavenly bliss, that creaking sound was back. Now this was just getting annoying. For the _third time_, Yugi sat up and strained his eyes to see if the window was open again, and if it was, how it could have possibly opened again? It wasn't windy outside at all! Giving up to this endless loop, Yugi made a conclusion that it was just the walls. The wood that framed the house wasn't made for a mansion or a large building. And it was obviously cheap. Just a corner store with cheap paint, a cheap sign, and cheap walls.

The innocence lay his head down on the silk-white pillow and closed his eyes. Upon closing them, the creaking sound was only more evident. But he tried to forget it. It was a special day tomorrow. The day that yearbooks were distributed and games were going to be played. Joey was participating in a dodge-ball tournament. There was food too. And Yugi was going to run a little Duel Monsters tournament. It was going to be a great day!, Yugi thought. His excitement slowly rocked him, lulled him, pacified him. Until he fell into a sound sleep. The creaking sound slowly faded into the depths of his mind.


	2. Gnats on the Wall

**Chapter Two: Gnats on the Wall**

The sun blared through the window with its never-ending light. But the curtains negated their effects and gave the bedroom a soft glow. Like that of the moonlight. The alarm clock was not heard; Yugi had forgotten to turn it on after his battle with the creaking window. And so he still slept, head half off of his pillow and blanket covering only one leg. Making him look more like he had been murdered than sleeping. But alas, one could not look at the poor boy and want to kiss him sweet dreams. It was a shame that his parents were never home. Just his grandfather, and previously his grandmother too.

Just before the clock struck 6:20 in the morning, an old, stocky man trudged through the door and into the stuffy, dim room. He trotted to the window and threw open the curtains, flushing out the room in morning light very similar to a camera flash. The teen scrunched his eyes tightly. Maybe his grandfather would forget about him and walk out.

"Time to get up Yugi." Was all the grandpa said before he walked out. He knew that his grandson was awake and that he wouldn't dare go back to sleep if he didn't want water poured on his face. The room was quiet again. Yugi hoisted himself up into a slumped sitting position and looked over to the window a few feet away from the foot of his bed, which was letting rays of heavenly light into the little green room. He then gazed over at the wall opposite to him. What? The window must have opened again, because the top of the wall was completely covered with gnats. Tiny, black, scurrying gnats dirtying up his wall. It frightened Yugi a little; how does one kill a colony of evasive gnats?

The skittish boy hopped out of bed and tip-toed closer to the wall, which was probably a little too far for tip-toeing, about fifteen feet or so of walking like a fearful cat made him look like more like a clown than himself. After his venture over to the wall, Yugi noticed that the gnats were congregating. They grouped up into larger dots….and then they faded away. Taken aback, Yugi gasped and jumped. Was it just a dream? Maybe he didn't rub his eyes out enough. It was probably the last remnants of his dream still in his retinas. And the moment they faded away, they caused no jittery fret, he felt much safer. But still…fading gnats?

"Yugi, I don't hear you in the shower!" Came a raspy voice from downstairs. Upon hearing this, Yugi jumped into high gear and picked his uniform out, ran out the door, and went to the task of preparing himself for the day. Hopefully the day would be as exciting as he hoped it would be.

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Yugi sat in the last period of the day. Health. Some project to work on about drugs and other things he didn't really care about, but took diligent interest in perfecting his work to get a good grade. It was the last project of the year, a presentation that required about thirty minutes time to display, quite long for a presentation, considering that there were about thirty people in the class. But then again, Yugi knew no one in his class, and this was supposed to be a partner project. Everyone grouped up but him. He was alone in the project, but it wasn't unusual. It's not that he was an undesirable, but he was just too shy to ask even the teacher if she could place him into a group. But, oh well, the project was best if he did it by himself. If anything, he could ramble… or not show up the day it was due.

The class periods were shortened for what the school called Campus Day. A day in which the last two hours of the school day were dedicated to yearbook distribution, movies, games, food, and other festivities. It was a new thing for Yugi, for his middle school didn't do anything like this. It was nice though; he didn't have to spend so much time working on his project that way. With only five minutes left in class, the students began to pack up and congregate by the door. Not bothering to get caught up in the rush to get out, Yugi remained by his desk. The enormous window outside revealed clouds and a gloomy day. It was alarming how truly inconstant the weather was this merry month of May. Normally the sun would be showing itself, like in the morning. But now it was hidden behind ugly monochrome clouds that said nothing but rain and storm. What a horrible day for Campus Day. With three soft pings of the bell, the students were set free and went racing down the hallway to collect their treasure.

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Yearbook under his arm, Yugi went strolling down the crowded hallways and into the cafeteria. He was actually surprised at how quiet the lunch area was. Everyone else must have been over where the dodge ball tournament and food was located, which was conveniently placed across campus and away from classrooms so that the teachers could get some peace and quiet. It was enough work trying to keep the students focused what with shortened classes and an end-of-year celebration right under their noses. However, the teachers that didn't leave and go home right when the bell rang put signs up on their doors saying that they were playing a certain movie in their classroom. Only the cool teachers did that, such as the Sports Medicine teacher, who demanded that the students called him by his first name, and his old art teacher from middle school, who moved to Domino High, and always played a movie on Friday. If nothing else was interesting to him, or if he wasn't going to be playing in a Duel Monsters tournament, Yugi would have gladly dropped by to watch a good movie. He liked movies a lot. They took him to a place outside of his own life.

Arriving at a table, Yugi greeted his friends in turn. They were all munching on the barbeque that one of the vendors was selling outside. The teen's stomach wasn't screaming at him like it normally was however; he accepted a bag or chips that Tristan offered him and slowly downed the bag. All of them were busy trying to locate themselves in the yearbook. Joey and Tristan were on the basketball team this year, and were poking fun at each other's faces in the team pictures. Mustering up courage, Yugi got Tea's attention.

"Wanna sign my yearbook?" He asked while already handing his yearbook to her. They traded. Opening the yearbook to the first page, Yugi could already see a lot of notes and signatures from Tea's other friends; he turned to the second page and found a spot to write. He wrote a long note like he always did. He and Tea went very far back. They were best friends ever since kindergarten and had gotten used to putting all kinds of jovial things in each other's yearbooks. Ending the note with a signature, the two friends traded back. The shorter boy had to resist the urge to read what Tea had written, but it was a more private matter for him, and he wanted to read the notes he got once safely in the confines of his home. Turning to his left, Yugi looked at Joey.

"You wanna sign?" He asked the blonde one.

"Maybe later." Joey replied, taking a gargantuan bite out of his hot dog. The taller was currently clad in a blue shirt and gym shorts for the dodge ball tournament. Said tournament started in less than five minutes, so if he'd better get his arse moving if he wanted to stay on his team.

With Joey and Tristan running off to the tournament in the gym, all who was left was Yugi and Tea. They had finished eating and were trying to find things to chat about. Finding nothing, Tea guided her friend upward and set off to find room 520, which was where the Duel Monsters tournament was going to be held. Down a flight of stairs they went, turned right, and then passed the room entirely, not even giving it a second glance. Tea was like a train in forward motion when she set her mind to something. Even something as simple as finding a classroom. After _finally_ realizing, the brunette girl hit the brakes, turned herself around, and dragged Yugi back the way they came, back to room 520. But it was a disappointment.

"The Duel Monsters tournament has been cancelled due to a lack of participants. We are sorry." Tea read on the little paper, which was obviously scrawled the last minute with pink highlighter.

"Aw, sorry Yugi." Tea looked down to her less than satisfied friend.

"That's okay. It's fine. I mean, there's other stuff to do here." Yugi lied. He was upset, he had been looking forward to this all month. He had been the one to put this together anyway.

And so the two made the journey down the hall, turning left, up a flight of stairs, turning right, and out the front door of the school, finally making it across campus to the gym. Many vendors were outside; a hotdog stand dubbed "Wiener World", and a fake tattoo artist. A large sign directed students to the auxiliary gym if they desired more delectable goodies.

"We need to watch the dodge ball game!" Tea exclaimed and once again took a death grip on Yugi's wrist and lead him down another flight of stairs and into the gym. Students were evidently more interested in this, for the bleachers were already almost full. About six or so teams were ready to play, female teams and male teams all with their team name on blue, green, white, black, or red shirts. On the third row about five feet in sat Yugi and Tea. Music was playing. And for a moment, Yugi heard something weird come from the speakers. A crackling sound.

"Do you hear that feedback?" Yugi winced, trying to raise his voice above the threshold of the music.

"What do you mean? I don't hear anything…" Tea replied shaking her head. She immediately turned her head to Joey and Tristan, who were waving to them from the floor. Yugi, still a little wierded out, put on a happy façade and waved at his friends. The weird sound was quickly forgotten. The director of the entertainment raised the microphone to her mouth and announced to the students:

"Five minutes until the tournament, five minutes!"

Tea immediately pulled out her cell phone. She pulled a face.

"I've gotta take this. My phone is dying." Was all Yugi could hear before she stood up and pushed her way down the bleachers and outside the door. Sitting alone was very uncomfortable for him, but nothing unusual. And so Yugi drained out all the clamor of the people and rested his head in his hands. The music continued playing a popular new song. _Love is overrated la la la la la_. The song said. Quite fitting to Yugi's beliefs. Being surrounded by drama and relationships made him only more certain that he _wasn't_ ever going to get into one. When the song ended, Tea returned.

"You feeling alright?" Yugi asked, concerned. It wasn't long ago that Tea vanished after getting an anxiety attack during science, leaving the teen to finish the lab all on his own.

"Yeah, just fine! My dad was calling." Tea sat down on her blue skirt close to him. There wasn't much to watch really, the teams hadn't started yet and were just standing around discussing play tactics. Kind of impracticable to do this, it was just dodge ball. That's all you do. You dodge balls.

The music was alright, just the usual pump-up music to get the crow fired up for the tournament. The upperclassmen promised that the dodge ball game was always fun. Tea was awfully quiet. She then picked up her backpack and yearbook.

"I've gotta go." Was all she said. And then she left. Just like that.

What?

He hadn't done anything? She was probably just anxious again or something. Nothing unusual. But the moment she left, that crackling sound came back. That feedback, such a pet peeve of his. Friendless and alone, the short boy slumped over, resting his head in his hands. Someone tapped him on his left shoulder. Turning, it was Natalie, a fellow freshman with shoulder length light brown hair. She was only an acquaintance of his but was very accepting of him. She was very nice. He paid his dues and waved back; they traded year books and signed each other's.

"Alright folks, it's time to begin our annual Domino High Dodge ball tournament! Bring 'em out!" The class president said. And the teams came out.

At least the game would be interesting.

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The game ended with a win on the senior girls' team, and a loss on the freshman boy's team to the staff team. Tristan was very good though. In the last round, everyone on the freshman boy's team had been tagged out accept for Tristan. One against five. It was a good game though.

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The minute the tournament concluded, Yugi strolled over to the auxiliary gym with Natalie keeping him company to go get some food. It looked as though the vendors were closing up though. He and Natalie stood there wearily for a few seconds when a female voice called behind them.

"Would you like to buy an elephant ear?" She said. "If you buy one for five dollars, the next one is only one. Final sale!" Natalie refused, but to Yugi, why not? No one could resist the giant pastries covered in cinnamon sugar. And to cure his aching mood, two would do just fine.

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The boy with the spiky hair followed Natalie around the new school theatre like a lost puppy. He was so lucky that she was so accepting of him. She was an 'undesirable' too: not really noticed by popular people, played magic games, got A's in every class, but had many friends.

Remembering that food was prohibited in the theatre, the teen stuffed his two large treats in his lunch bag. _That'll make a good snack for later_. Yugi thought to himself. The day before Campus day, he was feeling very depressed. Very alone. But this wasn't unusual. And on that day he told himself that he would survive the exciting day, get home, and watch his favorite movies until bed time. The elephant ears would definitely cure his little heartache.

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At _last_ the bell rang! The buses lined up and the students ran to them to escape the pouring rain. Deciding that the buses would get him home much faster, Yugi hopped onto bus number 63. It was stuffy, crowded, and full of annoying, immature sixth graders from the middle school. The ride home wasn't that exciting.

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Finally arriving home, Yugi changed into comfortable clothes. He pulled on some sweats and a red shirt and kicked off his socks. Then, with a glass of water and two elephant ears, the teen walked upstairs into his father's movie room, lay down on the couch, and started his favorite movie: Iron Man.


End file.
